The Success of your Business Depends on Solid Relationships

But you can’t build relationships if you walk away after the transaction.

Many real estate investors don’t realize that relationships are fundamental to the success of their investment business. They get so busy focusing on leads and new deals that they fail to follow up on the deals they’ve already made in order to solidify those transactions and nurture the relationships for future deals.

You can’t build relationships by walking away and forgetting about the client after the sale.

Following up on a transaction, regardless of whether said transaction is based in acquisition, property sales, or affiliate sales on investment tools and products, is critical to building, nurturing and maintaining long-term relationships that will benefit your business.

Here are a few post transaction tips to help you develop, nurture and maintain your business relationships in order to facilitate growth and prosperity for your business:

Make a call!

Within 24 to 48 hours of the transaction, make a quick call to say a simple “thank you” and ask how things are going. In the case of a sale, regardless of whether that is a real estate investment product you are affiliated with or a real estate property, it is imperative that you check in with your customer to see if everything is going well, if they have any questions or if you can be of service to them in any way.

If you’ve just made an acquisition, again the importance of follow up cannot be stressed enough. In the spirit of checking in to make sure all is well and see if the seller has any questions or concerns, make a quick call; your effort will be noted, appreciated and remembered.

Send a note!

Just like your mama always said, you MUST send a thank you note. Within the following week or two, snail mail (email is NOT ok) a card or note to say “thanks”. Also, make sure it is personal; that means no pre-printed, generic, unsigned or signed-by-a-machine cards. Hand write your thank you note, mention the transaction you’ve just completed specifically, and let your client know that you are available for them should they have any questions or concerns, or should they be in need of further assistance from you in the future.

Check in Periodically!

Set your CRM (customer relationship management) system to remind you to follow up  or do do so for you via email, a phone call or a personalized direct mail piece periodically to touch base and let the client know that you are still available to them should they have any need of your assistance. Don’t have a good CRM? Invest in one; it will save you a lot of time, energy and probably customers and leads in the futures. There are a number of them on the market. I personally like Infusionsoft but that might be a bit robust if your business is just starting out. Do some research and find one that is cost effective and right for your business.

Say Happy Birthday or Happy Holidays!

Holiday greetings and birthday cards are a great way to let your clients know how much you appreciate them and also to keep you on their radar. Again, set up their profile in your CRM to send out a note or greeting card on those special days and make it personal! Perhaps even include a co-branded Starbucks card so they can get a free cup of Joe and, also, refill the card for continued use. Guess, what? They will think of you every time they stop in to grab a latte.

When your business is service oriented and relationship based, you can’t help but create lasting relationships by making follow up a routine part of doing business. As well as demonstrating that you care, follow-ups help solidify deals, nail down fixable problems and alleviate them before they can do any damage, and ensure that you are the go to person for future business.